


Just His Luck

by theChromiumFail



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Pre-Relationship, Why Did I Write This?, i did the thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 05:47:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13160541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theChromiumFail/pseuds/theChromiumFail
Summary: The courage hits him out of nowhere- or maybe it’s stupidity. He hasn’t felt this sure since he asked Cho to the Yule Ball. He doesn’t have the most successful history.-or-Harry tries to tell Luna how he really feels.





	Just His Luck

**Author's Note:**

> Months later and here we are! This story has been on my "to finish" plate since forever and here it is, finished. I couldn't have an AO3 account and not contribute to the Harry/Luna tag, so I hope you all enjoy this. <3

The walk to the library is one that Harry knows with a sureness that only comes with being friends with Hermione Granger. On this particular occasion, however, he’s hyper aware of every step he takes in its direction. 

It had taken him a few tries to track Luna down. She’s fleeting by nature, unless you really get to know her. She’s only ever  _ maybe _ somewhere, or  _ probably _ someplace else. The sudden want to find her came so suddenly he hadn’t even noticed he’d asked after her outloud until Ron responded “Who ever knows where she is?”

 

Harry rolled his eyes, not bothering to answer when his friend asked why he wanted to know where she was in the first place. Knowing him, Harry really didn’t feel like hearing whatever jokes Ron would have to say about him liking Luna, though they’d be nothing compared to what Fred and George would think up. He’d likely hear them all later, if all goes well. He’d have to find Luna first.

He would have asked Ginny, but at this time of day she would be at Quidditch practice.It certainly would have saved him the time, but it also would’ve meant getting a scolding he’d rather not have from Angelina about being late and skipping practice. Instead, he tried his luck asking people that he came across as he made his way through common spaces of the castle. 

Of course, no one was really of any help. There weren’t many people to ask anyway. He didn’t talk to a lot of them; either they didn’t like him or they didn’t like Luna, sometimes both. It occurred to Harry that he would probably have more luck asking people in her house, and so he resigned himself to asking Ravenclaws. It was Cho that pointed him towards Professor Sprout’s room.

“She had some herbology project, I think?” she had said.

He almost gave up then, thinking that by the time he got to Professor Sprout’s classroom, she would already be gone. He thought this to himself nearly a hundred times, after which he was already halfway there. Turning back would have been a waste of time, then.

The greenhouses came into view, and as Harry approached, he could feel his nerves collecting in his throat. What exactly was he supposed to say? Was he supposed to just say that he likes her or ask her on a date? Honestly, he wasn’t sure if she would understand that he was asking her out if he did that. She’d just think he was trying to be nice. Oh well, he’d just have to wing it.

Unfortunately, when he opened the door, the only person inside besides Professor Sprout was Neville.

“Harry!” Neville turned to face him, holding some sort of plant that changed color every time Harry looked at it. “What are you doing here?”

“Is Luna not with you?”

“Yeah, well, she was, but then we needed a book out of the library.”

“Is she there now?” Harry asked, impatiently. He took the responding “I would think so,” as a yes and was back out the door before Neville was done talking. It wouldn’t be the first time. He’d apologize later.

 

He almost got stuck on the staircases, too deep in his head thinking of what to say, but the rest of the walk comes easily. It isn’t long before he’s faced with the the large double doors of the library. Not giving himself the chance to turn around, he walks in and immediately searches the rowing isles for a catch of Luna’s blonde hair, or shoeless feet.

Harry smiles, the thought of Luna’s bizarre and unique appearance making him laugh. You couldn’t miss her even if you tried. She had a very peculiar way of looking mis-matched and out of place, yet somehow still put together. She didn’t care if what she wore looked good together to anyone else, only that she liked it. There was always something on her that had a story, Harry thinks, something that would catch your eye and you’d just have to ask about it.

He covers a good amount of the library, and considers the possibility that he may have missed her the closer he gets to the restricted section. But one more step, and dodging a book that almost collides with the side of his face, and he sees her. The book stops and hovers next to Luna as she searches the shelf before her for something else. Taking a breath he didn’t know he was holding, Harry finds his feet unable to move from where they are. 

It’s not the nerves he felt earlier that hold him still, not really. Luna has a certain energy about her, that anyone can attest to. But where others find it strange and maybe off-putting, Harry finds it entrancing, like he’s stepping into a different world, much like when Hagrid first took him through Diagon Alley.

Now that he’s here, it’s hard to really want to say anything. It’s rare that he gets in a comfortable enough place to feel like he doesn’t need to say anything, to do anything, but Luna has that sort of effect on him. He finds himself content to just be there, to watch whatever it is she happens to be doing at the time.

“Has a tourpephie got your legs, Harry?” 

Luna’s voice brings Harry out of his trance. He hadn’t thought that she’d seen him just yet, but then he also didn’t know how long he’d been standing there. 

“A- what?” he asks, not certain what she had said.

“A tourpephie, they’re these little fairy weeds that-”

“Oh, no. I wasn’t- I was just thinking.”

Luna doesn’t say anything in response, sending the book in her hand back up to its place before grabbing another one. Harry takes the opportunity to move closer, suddenly conscious of others moving through the library around them.  “Do you know what you’re looking for?” Harry asks, feeling once again unsure of himself.

“Oh yes, I’ve already got this one,” and Luna absently holds up her left hand, where Harry can see the title and author’s name of a book scribbled in Neville’s handwriting on her palm. At the same time, the book- the same one that nearly knocked his head off, falls into his hands. In his shock he almost drops it, but manages to hang onto it. The cover reads the same title and author that Luna has written on her hand. “I just thought that I’d pick up something else while I was already here.”

She doesn’t elaborate on what “something else” is, but she seems intent on what she’s looking for. Harry wonders if Neville had accounted for Luna’s tendency to get sidetracked, or why he sent her to go to the library in the first place. Then again, he guesses it beats leaving her in the classroom with their project. Who knows what would’ve happened then.

“Brilliant,” Harry shifts feet, trying to find his words but distracted by the fact that he’s somehow now carrying three books instead of one when a fourth is added to the pile. “Hey, umm, can I ask you a question, Luna?”

“Of course.”

“Alright, well, actually I need to tell you something. Or- both really. Ask and tell you something, is what I meant. Anyway,” Harry takes a breath, mentally kicking himself for his lack of finesse. Luna doesn’t seem to notice. She doesn’t really seem to be paying attention at all, Harry thinks. His brain panics, tripping over itself to find something to say that will pull her attention back. 

“We’re friends, right?” He blurts out, and really, he couldn’t have thought of a worse thing to say.

It does catch Luna’s attention though, and she turns to him with a smile. “I consider you a very dear friend, Harry, “ she says grabbing the the fourth book from Harry’s pile and putting it back.

“Good. That’s...good. I consider you a friend, too…” he’s not sure how to change topics from that.

“Oh, good!” Luna nods, her earrings jingling in the process. She walks past harry, and is almost to the edge of the isle when Harry realizes she probably thinks that’s all he wanted to say. 

“Wait, Luna,” he calls, crossing the few feet to catch up to her and shifting the books in his arms. “That’s not- what I meant to say was, um…” 

Luna waits, her fingers playing across a feather he hadn’t noticed she had on her bracelet. Harry tries to ignore the people that walk past them. “Right. What I meant to say was...well, I think it’d be good if-if you and I-”

“Harry?” Harry looks up, startled out of his babbling by the familiar- though definitely not Luna’s- voice. In a second he spots Hermione, looking both surprised and relieved, over Luna’s shoulder. “There you are- oh, hi Luna!” she says as she approaches. Luna turns and waves. Harry sighs, closing his eyes, willing her to go away, or to have just never been here at all. Neither one happens, of course. Instead, he half-heartedly replies, “uh-huh,” to what Hermione says as they walk with Luna to check out her books.


End file.
